


Falling

by Medicalnonsense



Category: OFF (Video Game)
Genre: Four-eyed Batter, Gen, OFF (video game) Spoilers, body horror?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-26
Updated: 2013-04-26
Packaged: 2017-12-09 14:18:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/775173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medicalnonsense/pseuds/Medicalnonsense
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grief toys with a man's mind.<br/>Grief tears at a man's mind.<br/>Grief shredded his mind.<br/>Grief obliterated his humanity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling

Grief toys with a man's mind.

Grief tears at a man's mind.

Grief _shredded_ his mind.

Grief obliterated his humanity.

  


He hadn't noticed too much about himself had changed in the passing months.

In February, he felt fine. Perhaps even hopeful.

In March he felt sick. His heart sinking.

In June he stared at himself in the mirror and wondered who he was. She wasn't home and He was asleep. The man was alone. Alone in a silent house even devoid of the sounds of his own footsteps. One of the many things he hadn't noticed disappearing. His own voice was mostly absent as well along with any expression on his pale face. On this particular day, he finally did notice something; his face itched. What started as a contemplative stare into the bathroom mirror had turned into an exploration of the unexplained alterations to his own landscape.

He stayed inside with Him a lot, he told Him that he would take Him outside soon. He didn't seem too excited so he decided that maybe that wasn't the right choice. His eyes had grown sensitive to the sun's light, the whites of his eyes taking on a red tint with strain. Without taking his eyes from the mirror, he pulled the cord of the bathroom window's blinds, shutting out the light of day. He released a breath with relief, still studying his visage.  
His face did itch, particularly beneath his eyes. Carefully, he reached up and scratched at a fold in the skin of his face he had never noticed before. It sat parallel with the bottom edge of his eye. It sort of hurt to scratch it... There was a likewise fold of skin beneath his other eye; upon further inspection of sensitivity, he discovered that when pushed upon too hard, it was painful as well.

"Alright." he sighed, running his fingers carefully over the two folds as if he was rubbing his eyes to pinch the bridge of his nose. Placing his thumb and forefinger on either side of one of the folds, he pulled outward, trying to stretch the skin into a normal configuration. What he found instead, was that there was a fissure within the fold... A fissure that still appeared to be not fully formed.

Instead of questioning further, he left the bathroom for his bedroom, passing up the door across the hall even has he heard light coughs from behind it. He dug quickly but silently around on his desk before he located a letter opener and returned to the bathroom. He heard more coughs, but ignored them once again. Leaning in closely to the bathroom mirror, he lifted the letter opener, pressing the sharp edge to the fissure in the delicate fold. He didn't even so much as grunt at the pain as he cut it open. Blood seeped from the newly inflicted cut, he catching it with his tongue as it slid down his face. It wasn't strange to him though it would have been only a few months prior. It was almost as if something was pushing him to do this all. It might hurt now, but soon it would all be over; it was all for the greater good.

With this faith instilled in him, he raised the letter opener a second time and sliced the second fissure. From somewhere, he heard a cat purr though he was sure he never owned a cat... Looking at himself in the mirror, he morbidly thought it looked like he was crying blood. The thought, however was only fleeting before he was focused back on his direly important task. Just as he had while inspecting earlier, he placed the thumb and forefinger of each hand over the respective cuts and pulled them open. 

His breath caught in his throat as a new pair of red eyes stared back at him from the folds. Wincing his hands away from his own face, his four eyes blinked in unison as his expression contorted in fear. He stumbled backwards from the mirror, tripping over his own feet in the most noise he had made in a very long time. Seeking a handhold, he grabbed the blinds of the bathroom window, tearing them down with him as he fell. The blinding light from outside poured in, an inhuman growl issuing from his mouth. He squeezed all his eyes shut against the painful light. He rolled onto his stomach and hissed his pain further, scratching at the tile floor with his short fingernails. 

Outside, he heard a pleasant chuckle; his neighbor? Something in the back of his head through the pain prompted his memory that he was having a yardsale that day. Again he heard the purring of a cat along with the twittering of birds outside as he pulled himself out of the sunlight to open his double set of eyes in the considerably darker hallway.

Why was every last sound suddenly so loud?! His neighbor had to have been across the street laughing his lungs out for him to hear him and the cat had to have been by his face or the birds inside the house... There was a loud, hacking cough from the room across the hallway.

He hated all of this... The birds, his face, the sunlight, the happiness his peculiar two-faced neighbor had... Her... Him... He needed to start anew... Purify his life...

Standing and wiping the blood from his cheeks and eyes, he was surprised what the second set could do for him. The world was completely different. What had once seemed to be shades of grey to him suddenly held bright, renewed color. Color so bright it screamed at him... Light so bright that even in the sheltered hallway, his eyes still needed refuge... 

As if an unseen force drove his body, he knew what he had to do. His conscience told him in a sweet purr that it was a marvelous task he had set before him. A righteous quest that would try him. A journey he would take to destroy the monsters that lived around every corner and to purify all the spectres that haunted him. He listened to the sweet, educated voice as he pulled on the clothes for his journey. He knew he would need protection from the sun for his eyes; snatching a ballcap from his bedpost, he pulled it over his dark hair. The shadow created by the bill wasn't much, but he knew he would still appreciate it in the sun.

The man's ears were deaf to the coughing in the bedroom, urgent though it was. He just heard the coaxing of the Oxford purr in his mind.

He would help everybody... First, however, he would need a weapon.

Stepping out of the house, he gritted his teeth against the light, squeezing his lower set of eyes closed. He knew while they could see through the murkiest, pitchest of darks, they were worthless in the sun.

  


"Heh-heh-heh-heh." his neighbor greeted him from beneath his mop of dark hair, "Hey batter-batter, need something?" The man picked up a sturdy baseball bat, the name "Harold" set into the laquer of the object. "Show me the color of your credits." The man heard, not questioning him, "And the bat is yours."

"How much?" the man asked from under the dark shadow of his cap.

"200 credits." the neighbor chuckled whimsically. The man looked up from the bat to the sidewalk as he thought if the bat was worth 200 credits. His vision was blurry, however, being mindful of the light, he allowed his lower pair to supplement his sight ever so slightly. He focused on the people he knew lived on his block. They were so terribly samely, they knew nothing of him or what he was going through. They didn't care. They only cared about themselves.

_Elsens_... His mind knew that was what they were. It didn't matter he had never heard that word before in his life, he just knew that was what people were. "Here." the man handed over the 200 credits to his neighbor. His face looked different somehow... It took him a moment to realize that in his contemplation, his neighbor had donned a peculiar mask. He supposed it was just as well, he couldn't ever remember what his face looked like as it was.

"There, there!" the neighbor chuckled encouragingly, taking his money. "Pleasure doing business with you Mister Batter." The Batter nodded, "If you need anything else, of course I'll be around." The Batter nodded again.

He was charged with glorious purpose. He was charged with a task. He heard the purr of a cat as suddenly he felt the world spin around him. He opened his lower eyes fully in hopes of maybe steadying his vision, but all it did instead was blind him. Unable to control himself, he roared in frustration and slapped his hands over his eyes as all the sounds of his life blended together in the darkness, whispers of voices he didn't know taking over and fading into the sound of cool, dripping water.


End file.
